Ukraine’s stuttering telecom sector set back two years by Covid-19
Ukraine’s growing economy was dealt another blow in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, stalling the resurgence which had been experienced after the conflict with Russia over Crimea effectively came to a stalemate in 2016. Economic forecasts project that it will take up to two more years before the country’s GDP returns to the levels seen in 2013, before the start of hostilities.
In spite of the broader economic hardship, the country’s telecom sector continued its solid upwards growth trajectory, with a robust 11% increase in services revenue in 2020, year-on-year, while in the first half of 2021 overall revenue increased 17.1%, year-on-year. This commendable result was largely on the back of growth in the mobile segment, particularly in relation to increased data traffic and mobile broadband usage during periods of lockdown.
The fixed broadband market showed slight growth, however with a limited network infrastructure to build upon Ukraine will likely remain near the bottom of the list when it comes to telecom sector maturity in Europe.